Inside the Star

Timeline of the police corruption case: 15 years to a sentence

April 1997: Det. David Eagleson, an officer attached to the Public Complaints Investigations Bureau, alerts his superiors that complaints are piling up about Schertzer for “assaultive conduct.” Sixteen complaints naming him are lodged between 1992 and April 1997.

April 1997: Det. David Eagleson, an officer attached to the Public Complaints Investigations Bureau, alerts his superiors that complaints are piling up about Schertzer for “assaultive conduct.” Sixteen complaints naming him are lodged between 1992 and April 1997.

Oct. 28, 1997: Police arrest Memis Sipar and Arthur Christopoulou on suspicion of trafficking cocaine in separate vehicles, thanks to a tip by an unnamed source. No drugs are found in the vehicles, but both men are taken to 53 Division station for questioning, where they are strip-searched, resulting in no evidence of any wrongdoing. Both are denied phone calls while in custody. During their detention, officers knock at two addresses connected to Sipar and conduct searches without obtaining a proper warrant. Nothing turns up at these addresses either. Sipar is detained for six hours and eventually released without charges. This is the fourth time Sipar has been arrested, not one of those arrests ending in a finding of guilt. In the three other arrests, charges were withdrawn.

April 27, 1998: An investigation completed by the police public complaint bureau finds charges of discreditable conduct are warranted against the officers in connection with the October 1997 arrest and detention of Sipar and Christopoulou. A misconduct hearing is ordered for Det. John Schertzer and five other officers.

October 1998: Misconduct allegations against the six Toronto drug squad officers are dismissed on a technicality. Their lawyer, Harry Black, argues it has taken too long to bring the officers to the internal discipline tribunal. Supt. Terry Kelly, adjudicating the hearing, halts the case without hearing evidence.

November 1998: Sipar appeals the ruling to the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services. Police Chief David Boothby later intervenes in support of the appeal.

June 1999: A federal prosecutor drops a case against an alleged drug trafficker rather than disclose complaint files involving Toronto drug squad officers. The judge had ordered the Crown to reveal complaints against Schertzer, Reid, Miched and Correia, as well two other officers.

December 1999: The Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services orders Toronto police to reopen the investigation of Sipar’s complaint. Meanwhile, many more criminal cases connected to the Central Field Command drug squad are being stayed or dropped with little or no explanation.

October 1999: A routine audit of the force’s Repeat Offender Program Enforcement group (known as the ROPE squad) turns up discrepancies in the budget for paying police informants — the “fink fund.”

Nov. 22, 2000: Among eight veteran police officers arrested, Staff Sgt. John Schertzer is the most senior, with 25 years’ service. All are suspended from duty with pay and are former members of the Central Field Command drug squad. They face criminal charges and a combined 98 Police Act charges. Schertzer faces four counts each of theft, fraud, forgery, uttering and breach of trust.

November 2001: Charges dropped against three of five ROPE squad officers in the fink fund case. In October 2002, the last two officers are exonerated.

February 2002: A Crown prosecutor stays charges against the eight drug squad officers in the fink fund case on the grounds that proceeding “may compromise an ongoing criminal investigation.”

July 2002: Three officers cleared in the fink-fund case launch lawsuits against investigators, two police chiefs and provincial prosecutors.

January 2003: Eight Central Field Command officers charged in the fink fund case, including Schertzer, file a $116 million lawsuit against Police Chief Julian Fantino, RCMP Chief Supt. John Neily and other officials.

Jan. 7, 2004: Schertzer is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, attempt to obstruct justice (three counts), perjury, extortion, assault causing bodily harm and theft over $5,000. Five other colleagues’ charges round the total up to 40 counts, in what is described as the worst scandal ever to hit the Toronto Police Service.

May 31, 2006: After a five-month preliminary hearing, then-provincial court Justice James Blacklock commits the six officers to trial on 14 of the 22 counts. All but one face one count of conspiracy to attempt to obstruct justice. Schertzer faces three counts of attempt to obstruct justice, one count of perjury, one count of assault causing bodily harm, one count of extortion and one count of theft over $5,000.

2007: Schertzer retires after 29 years with the force. According to the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, or “Sunshine List,” he raked in $106,614 while on paid leave that year.

January 2008: After five months of pre-trial arguments, Ontario Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer stays the charges against the six defendants, ruling they aren’t getting a fair trial because proceedings are moving at a “glacial speed.”

Oct. 28, 2009: The Court of Appeal for Ontario reverses Nordheimer’s ruling and orders a new trial for all but one of the six accused.

Jan. 16, 2012: The trial is set to begin before a jury.

June 19, 2012: After months of testimony, the case goes to the jury for John Schertzer, Joseph Miched, Steven Correia, Ned Maodus and Raymond Pollard.

June 27, 2012: Jury returns guilty verdicts against all five officers on attempting to obstruct justice. Schertzer’s charges (conspiracy to attempt to obstruct justice, attempt to obstruct justice, assault causing bodily harm, extortion, theft over $5,000) bring a guilty verdict only for attempting to obstruct justice. He’s found not guilty of other charges. The jury rejected allegations by heroin dealer Kai Sum Yeung that Schertzer seized $2,000 from his wallet in 1998, though the officer only reported $350, and the allegations of Christopher Quigley about being “pulverized” by Schertzer, Maodus and another officer during three beatings in a police interview room in 1998, to pressure him into revealing where he kept his drugs and money.

Jan. 4, 2013: All five officers are sentenced to 45 days of house arrest.